An Overview on the Effectiveness of Various Advertisements Run National Aids Control Organization

Since first diagnosis of HIV in 1986 within the country, India now holds the second largest absolute number of HIV infections in the world, following South Africa. With an estimated 5.134 million people living with HIV in the adult population (15-49 years) in 2004, India accounts for almost 13% of the global HIV prevalence. Despite this large number of HIV-infected individuals, because of its large population size, India continues to be in the category of low prevalence countries with an overall prevalence of less than 1%. Tracking the epidemic and implementing effective programmes is made difficult by the fact that there is no one epidemic in India. Rather, there are several localized sub-epidemics reflecting the diversity in socio-culture pattern and multiple vulnerabilities present in the country. Though the overall national prevalence is low, six states have reached high prevalence (> 1%): Manipur, Nagaland, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Certain districts in Goa and Gujarat have also reported high prevalence. With more than doubling from 47 districts in 2002, a total number of 111 districts across the country are now showing a HIV-prevalence above 1% thus classifying as a generalized epidemic. Sexual transmission is driving India‘s AIDS epidemic. This route accounts for approximately 86% of the HIV infections in the country. The remaining 14% are by other routes such as blood transfusion, mother to child transmission and injecting drug use, particularly

infections in India occur among young people in the age group of 15 to 24 years. Since 1998, the Government of India has been conducting annual nationwide sentinel surveillance to monitor the trends and pattern of HIV epidemic. The sentinel sites cover both high-risk populations such as attendees of Sexual Transmitted infections (STI) clinics, injecting drug users (IDU), sex workers and men who have sex with men (MSM) as well as perceived low-risk populations such as women attending personal clinics.

India remains a low prevalence country with overall HIV prevalence of 0.91% (less than 1%), have this masks various sub epidemic in various areas in the country, based on high prevalence observed number of sentinel location sites. Recent surveillance data indicate that in high prevalence states, the epidemic is spreading gradually from urban to rural areas and from high-risk groups to the general population. The epidemic continues to shift towards women with an estimated 39% of the infected being women, increasing the potential of pediatric HIV in the future.

Sero surveillance studies in India from mid-1980's revealed only intermittent cases of HIV only in the high risk groups, later studies showed spread at rate paralleled only in Africa. One survey of college students in Mumbai and Pune revealed significant misconceptions about HIV and its transmission^ surveyed prostitutes, attendees of STD clinic and OPD patients in Vellore and found that only 30% had heard of HIV/ AIDS. Other studies also targeted only selected populations such as naval personnel"*. With the increasing number of HIV infection and AIDS related deaths running into thousands each day world over. To get a comprehensive insight into the magnitude of the AIDS epidemic and various related aspects accelerating its fast spread. The article 'College student's perceptions of sources of information about AIDS' discusses public communication campaign and social marketing literature and to identify principles for developing effective AIDS education prevention efforts. In the study, it was investigated college students perceptions of (1) the credibility and likelihood of using a variety of interpersonal media and institutional sources of information about AIDS; (2) the sources that have A survey based research paper 'Teenager's beliefs about AIDS education and physician's perceptions about them' analysed family physician's responses to a questionnaire based in part, on the health belief model are compared with teenager's responses about their knowledge, health beliefs, and preferred forniat and method of learning about AIDS. Results indicate that family physician's predictions about teenager's knowledge and beliefs about AIDS are not always accurate; but except when physicians underestimate the teenager's perceived obstacles to AIDS prevention, the data suggest that physicians would be effective in teaching teenagers about AIDS. The study 'AIDS: sources of information and public opinion in Norway' deals with three issues related to public opinion in Norway. These are, the importance and credibility of HIV/AIDS infonnation sources; changes or intended changes of sexual behaviour because of fear of HIV/AIDS and attitudes towards homosexuals and the integrity of HIV infected persons. The data stem from a national interview survey conducted in 1986, and the sample is considered to be representative of the total adult Norwegian population. By far the most important sources of infonnation related to HIV/AIDS are television, newspapers, and radio. Totally, 2% reported having changed sexual behaviour because of fear of HIV/AIDS. The youngest age group reported change (4%) and intended change (6%) more often than did the other age groups. As for the attitudes towards homosexuals, the present study indicates a slight increase in negative attitude towards homosexuals because of fear of HIV/AIDS. A study 'Systematic review of the effectiveness of mass communication programs to change HIV/AIDS-related behaviours in developing countries' systematically examined the effectiveness of 24 mass media interventions on changing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) related ioiowledge, attitudes and behaviours. The intervention studies were published from 1990 to 2004, through reported data from developing countries and compared outcomes using (i) pre- and post-intervention data, (ii) treatment versus control (comparison) groups or (iii) post intervention data across levels of exposure. The most frequently reported outcomes were condom use (17 studies) and knowledge of modes of HIV transmission (15 studies), followed by reduction in high-risk sexual behaviour (8 studies), perceived risk of contracting HIV/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) (6 studies), interpersonal communication about AIDS or condom use (6 studies), self-efficacy to negotiate condom use (4 studies) and abstaining from sexual relations (4 studies). The results yielded mixed results, and where statistically significant, the effect size was small to moderate (in some cases as low as 1-2% point increase). Half of media: knowledge of HIV transmission and reduction in high-risk sexual behaviour. Further rigorous evaluation on comprehensive programs is required to provide a more definitive answer to the question of media effects on HIV/AIDS-related behaviour in developing countries. A cross sectional study 'Knowledge and Awareness of HIV/AIDS among Some senior secondary school students in Katsina, Nigeria' was conducted to determine the knowledge and awareness of HIV/AIDS among some senior secondary school students was undertaken in Katsina, Katsina State, Nigeria. The purpose of this study was to provide preliminary data on HIV/AIDS knowledge and awareness among young people in Katsina. A 26 item, English-language questionnaire was pilot-tested and administered to a sample of 120 students across 6 selected secondary schools, namely: Women Teachers College, Government Secondary School Kofar Yandaka, Govemment College Katsina, Kiddies International School and Ulal Albab Science Secondary School. The questionnaires were coded and analysed using the SPSS software. The data was then subjected to simple descriptive statistical analysis. There were fair distributions in the number of male and female respondents, 86% aged 16-20years. 96% known what HIV/AIDS is but only 52.5% believed that HIV/AIDS has cure"

1. To study the various themes of TV AIDS messages. 2. To evaluate the appeals used in TV messages. 3. To analyse the various Communication skills adopted in AIDS messages.

The presents study has yielded a wealth of very rich data as findings. We have attempted to classify and organize this data in the study so that insights can be obtained, inferences can be drawn and conclusions can be reached. These would be useful for assessing the impact of the present media campaign and to develop effective campaign strategies in future. The media campaign, which used Television, Radio and Newspaper for communicating messages, was aimed at increasing the awareness, improving the knowledge and inculcating changed desirable behaviour among the target audience. The basic communication was woven around the theme of ‗Prevention of Parent-to-child transmission (PPTCT)‘ of HIV/AIDS and therefore the conclusions that are included in this chapter will cover only the impact in that domain. 1. Wilmer Roger D. and Dominick Joseph R. (2003). Mass Media Research an introduction, 7th edition Thomsan Wadsworth. 2. Kerliger N. Fredrick (2000). Foundation of Behavioral Research. Sujit publication. 3. Dayal M. Kumar (2004). Media Shodh, Haryana Sahitya Akadami. 4. Thakur Devender (2003). Research Methodology in Social Science, Deep and Deep Publications. 5. Kothari C.R. (2000). Research Methodology & Technique, Vishva Prakashan. 6. William M.K. Trochim (2004). Research Methods, 2ed Biztantra. 7. Yun, Heijin, Govander, K. and Mody Bella (2001). Factoring Poverty & Culture into HIV/AIDS Campaign. 8. Singhal Arvind (2003). Focusing on Forest not Just the Tree: Cultural Strategies Combating AIDS & MICA Communication Review-21-28. 9. National Base Line Report on General Population Behavioral Surveillance Survey-2001, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of India. 10. India (2005), Publications Divisions, Ministry of I & B, Govt. of India.

Research Scholar of OPJS University, Churu, Rajasthan